I am an idiot

I loaded up my camera with some Tri-x film all raring and ready to take it out hiking with me. We decided to go to the beautiful Upper Salmon River trail. I so love that place. It is a trail that takes the hiker along the salmon river through an old-growth cedar forest. The light was perfect. And this doesn’t happen very often here in Oregon. We mostly have to deal with soggy rain. But today was a gorgeous sunny day. The light was streaming through the forest canopy perfectly. I was stoked.

I snapped all sorts of fantastic shots, making sure I was looking at the forest in terms of light and dark (since I was using black and white film). I took great care in choosing my shots with this in mind. And I think I got some really good ones!

I got to the end of the roll and, strangely, it kept going. Well past the 24 frames the package promised. Something was wrong. Very wrong. I didn’t properly thread the film. It hadn’t loaded right. The fantastic photos I shot don’t exist.

I am so. fucking. bummed.

And to add frosting to this Cake Of Doom I tripped on the hike back to the car and completely and literally bit the dust. My knees are all bruised up, as is my ego.

But this is a beautiful shot. Don’t be so hard on yourself. We’ve practically all done it. I used to shoot weddings and one day i did this. I shot the ceremony, then i gathered the whole family at the altar for portraits. I’m shooting away, getting all kinds of combinations of family members when i look down at my camera. There it is on something like shot 40. I look in the little window on back and see darkness. I forgot to even load a roll of film! Ugh! I quickly loaded another roll and told everyone i’d loaded the wrong kind of film and blew through all those portraits all over again! Man, I was hustling! It was SO EMBARASSING!!! 🙂 Of course, that’s not the only time i did something similar. I’ve also shot an entire roll of film then forgot to rewind it. I opened the camera right up in full daylight. It happens.

What’s it they say: to ere is human. Join the rest of us dear – brilliant one moment, a total klutz the next …! Anyway, if I hadn’t known about the black and white spree, I’d have been telling you I was going to write something glowingly complimentary about this colour one, but if you’d rather I’ll leave the compliments for another day?

Published by Moni

I am a Children's Librarian living in the Portland, Oregon area. When I am not Children's Librianing I like to play with cameras and film. I also like playing the ukulele, knitting, sketching, and hiking.
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